Project Fire Buddies Brings Cheer To Oak Forest's Vulnerable Kids

OAK FOREST, IL — Firefighters like Kurtis DeGroot and his Oak Forest colleagues don't give up until they stamp out a blaze, but it was the kids burning with fever, the ones whose immune systems wrestled against cancer, the ones so sick they couldn't trick-or-treat that stumped him. How do you rescue a child who is broken not only in body, but in spirit, too?

DeGroot, never daunted by life's speed bumps, starting talking to a guy back at the fire house: "What more can we do for them? We've got to be able to do something for these kids."

DeGroot and Oak Forest's other fire fighters are paramedics, too, and they've all been haunted by the little faces they've seen on emergency calls or the calls to transport to a hospital a child who is undergoing chemotherapy and spikes a fever. They all understood what DeGroot was saying. So the guy talked to another guy and DeGroot talked to a union chief. And soon DeGroot and his fire house network figured out first steps.

Firefighters would be buddies. Buddies with the kids they'd picked up on calls and whom they suspected could use some cheering up. They'd keep their radios on them, visit in downtime or on days off to play board games, whiffle ball or Pie Face with them. They'd even pull up in a fire truck when they could. No emergency services would be compromised.

And Project Fire Buddies was born.

"When I was a kid, it was the coolest thing to have a fire truck pull up," DeGroot said.

Oak Forest's kids and their parents thought so, too.

"Oh my god, it's hard to put into words," said Eileen Flores, whose son Pablo, a star Oak Forest soccer player, was diagnosed with bone cancer four years ago at 17. "To have them come and help us not think about it...it was phenomenal."

Flores's leg was amputated, ending a promising soccer career. DeGroot thought that Flores, a teenager, might not think riding in a fire truck was cool anymore. So DeGroot found a contact who helped him reach the Chicago Fire. The team gave the Flores family tickets to see a play off game, and goalies hung out with Flores afterward.

The Flores family were so moved, they now help DeGroot buy gifts at Christmas to support his efforts.

"That is out biggest thing that we and Pablo want to do —we want to help, and we want to do it because people did it for us."

Project Fire Buddies is a three-year-old volunteer effort lead by DeGroot, although he said he has applied for nonprofit status. Its goal is to support and cheer some of Oak Forest's most vulnerable people. When DeGroot adopts a child as a fire buddy, he adopts them for life. Year after year, he keeps tabs on how they're doing and stops by to play, to chat, to drop off gifts.

The group does side projects, too. During the 2017/18 school year, for example, DeGroot learned that about 200 of Oak Forest's school kids show up without any school supplies because they can't afford them. He solicited donations and filled 237 backpacks with supplies to donate to all of the area's public schools.

"We want kids to be excited about school," he said.

But it's the one-on-one connections that drive him and the others.

At Christmas, the volunteers work to get the big-ticket items on the children's lists, in part, he said, because they ask for so little: clothes for an Elf on a Shelf. A jacket. Socks.

"These kids need to be spoiled," he said.

Through the group's efforts, the volunteers have been able to buy luxuries, such as an Xbox One and a Barbie Dream House. They were also able to gather enough donations to buy an LG Bluetooth sound system for a teen with cancer who had been saving money to buy one.

Then there was a young girl who had been in remission but whose cancer returned. When DeGroot looked at her face, he saw defeat. He couldn't let that happen. So when he found out she wouldn't be going out to trick-or-treat that year, he brought the treats to her.

"I called the police chief and said this is my situation — my buddy can’t go trick or treating. Can every department vehicle show up with a bag of candy? On board. My chief emptied out both stations —fire trucks, engines, show up at the house and for several blocks there were cars, and everyone, one at time, delivered candy to her."

At no time was the public's safety at risk, DeGroot said. They are careful to separate the duties of the job from the Project Fire Buddies efforts. "We're always there to answer calls," he said.

But, he added, "If we have the ability to do more, then why not?"

People who are interested in supporting Project Fire Buddies can message DeGroot through the group's Facebook page.